Adorable as Always

Chris and I spent last weekend with a bunch of his relatives at his parent's cabin in northern Minnesota. I hadn't seen one uncle since our wedding and he clearly noticed the difference in my shape. The one and only time he had met me, I was wearing a form-fitting dress that hugged my compact figure in all the right places. I felt light and still had muscle tone in my arms. By last weekend, I was rounder all over and wearing ill-fitting maternity jeans, which, because I'd neglected to wear my trusted Bella Band that helps hold up my pants in absence of being able to wear a belt (the must-have fashion accessory for pregnant women I've decided) became dangerously inappropriate every time I bent over.

Yet his reaction was not what I had braced myself for. He started with "You're so little" (which I did not find offensive, because it was not followed by the untactful "How tall are you?") and ended with...."Adorable as always." I just about hugged him with joy. I assumed he'd read my blog, but he hadn't, so he had produced the "beautiful as always" variation completely unprompted.

Chris was never a Boy Scout or went to summer camp. Instead, he had summers at the cabin, where he fished, water skied, roasted s'mores and even raced turtles in downtown Longville. He loves being on the water and his favorite sports involve anything where you're towed by a very fast boat. I understand that the love of these activities is tied to his memories of and attachment to the cabin. However, I still do not want to get a boat. Despite my very logical concerns of where we'd put it, how we'd pay for and the time spent to maintain it, I find Chris peering at Craig's Lists ads, slowing the car down as we drive past boat sales, and reporting on who at work just bought a bigger, faster boat. (And his co-worker is still trying to sell the old one, so we could get a good deal, he adds!)

Now we were at the cabin and Chris had revived his dream in front of his uncles and cousins who were clearly enjoying this rehashed debate. They egged him on - maybe out of family loyalty or maybe because one of their partners had also put the kibosh on a big toy they'd fantasized about. The discussion went around and around with Chris no closer to convincing me that now, or within his projected time line of six years, we should or will own a boat. At a standstill in the debate, when Chris's uncles had run out of witty comments, one of Chris's cousins, as if on cue, pipes up with, "Beautiful as always." It was either a sign of reconciliation or a last-ditch attempt to win me over.

Yes, someone has been paying attention, (even if it took the lone female cousin to learn first) and ah, I did find it flattering, even when the timing of her delivery was meant for a good laugh. But for all the flattering those three words can bestow, it still won't convince your wife you need to buy a boat.